Keynote Speakers

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  Dmitry (Dima) A. Zaitsev

  Dr.Sci., Professor, Senior Member of ACM and IEEE, University of Derby, UK.

  Research field: Petri Net; Automated Control; Networking; Models of Computation.

  As a researcher, he developed timed Petri nets with multi-channel transitions and their equivalent transformations, synthesis of fuzzy-logic functions given in tabular form, functional Petri nets generalized as clans of linear systems, infinite Petri nets, minimal universal Petri nets, and the Sleptsov net computing model.

  As a professor, he has been teaching up to sixteen subjects in computer science since 2006. His greatest achievement as a programmer is Opera-Topaz, a 100,000-line C project implemented in real industrial systems as a realization of his PhD work. One of his most challenging accomplishments as a programmer was the implementation of a novel stack of networking protocols, e6, within the Linux kernel.

  His inclination toward leadership and innovation appeared early: in his kindergarten Little Squirrel, he was the first to finish eating and was rewarded with a flag placed on his table. During his time at Secondary School No. 58 in Donetsk, Ukraine, he served as President of the School Scientific Society and attended a programming section at Donetsk Polytechnic Institute (DPI), programming in Algol on the M-222 computer. This experience led to a programming contest award for software that selected a space shuttle crew based on skills and psychological compatibility—what today might be humorously described as an early form of "dating software."

  After graduating with distinction in Applied Mathematics from DPI, he and a classmate presented, as their diploma projects, a Cross-Meta-Assembler divided into two stages—definition and assembly—which became part of the Micro software package delivered to KNIIRIA, Kyiv, for the first Ukrainian personal computer Neuron.The rest of his biography includes a visiting professorship at Paris-Dauphine University in 2005, leadership of Ukraine’s first NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) project in 2008, a DAAD scholarship in 2015, and a Fulbright scholarship with Jack Dongarra’s team in 2017.

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  Souhail DHOUIB

  Professor, Higher Institute of Industrial Management of Sfax, University of Sfax, Tunisia.

  Research field: Logistics; Supply Chain Modeling; ERP Systems; Intelligent Decision-support Systems.

  Prof. Souhail Dhouib is a globally recognized expert in Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research, proudly ranked among the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University and Elsevier. Notably, he holds the 69th position worldwide in the discipline of Metaheuristics according to ScholarGPS. As the inventor of the revolutionary "Dhouib-Matrix" AI optimization techniques, Prof. Dhouib has significantly advanced intelligent decision-making tools across multiple disciplines. He is also an acclaimed keynote speaker, international coordinator, editorial board member, and software industry pioneer. With an active academic and entrepreneurial spirit, he bridges the gap between theory and application in AI-driven optimization. His core innovation, the "Dhouib-Matrix," has led to the development of cutting-edge heuristics and metaheuristics for complex problems like transportation, scheduling, and robotics path planning. He is deeply involved in logistics, supply chain modeling, ERP systems, and intelligent decision-support systems, pushing boundaries in automated and cognitive computing applications.

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  Sara Moridpour

  Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University, Australia.

  Research field: Transport Modelling; Sustainable Transport and Accessibility; Transport Infrastructure Maintenance; Traffic Safety; Driving Behaviour Simulation.

  Prof. Sara Moridpour is a professor and an expert in traffic engineering and transportation modelling at the School of Engineering, RMIT University. She holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering and a Master's in Transportation Planning and Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran. She also obtained her Ph.D. degree in traffic and transport engineering from Monash University. She received numerous accolades for her leadership and contributions to STEM. Awards include the Veski Inspiring Women in STEM Sidebyside Leadership Award (2023), the RMIT University School of Engineering Leadership Award (2021), and the prestigious Institute of Transportation Engineers Rising Star Award (2016). Additionally, she is an editorial board member of four traffic/transportation engineering journals, an executive board member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers Australia and New Zealand Section, and a fellow member of Engineers Australia. She has served as a technical and organizing committee member for different traffic/transportation conferences. She works in the areas of driving behaviour modelling and analysis, road freight management, transport infrastructure maintenance planning and management, transport network modelling and simulation, and road safety.